Though several new polls suggest that President Trump’s approval rating has thus far been unaffected by the conclusion of the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian election interference, it’s ultimately too early to gauge whether there will be any long-term benefit.
Last week, I noted that the conclusion of the Mueller probe and its finding of “no collusion” (per Attorney General William Barr) would test a theory about Trump’s approval ratings. Trump’s consistently low approval ratings have been unprecedented, but one popular theory in some quarters of the Right was that it was being artificially kept down by the cloud hanging over his presidency as a result of the Russian collusion investigation. Presumably, were this true, we’d start to see Trump’s approval rating pick up once the cloud had been lifted.
